


go around again

by donquichotte



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Timey-Wimey, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 01:42:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3877570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donquichotte/pseuds/donquichotte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Tony Stark does not master time travel, but reaps the benefits anyways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. revert

**Author's Note:**

> Herein lies non-linearity, possible OOC-ness, and much artistic license taken.

It’s deeply unfair, Tony feels, that he hasn’t yet managed to develop a teleport. Aside from the sheer awesomeness, it would make fighting these damn…whatever the hell they are (who _can_ , incidentally, teleport) so much easier.

Luckily, it seems they can’t teleport far, so Thor, Hawkeye and Tony are holding the line from the air while Widow, Cap and Hulk are on the ground leaving limp blue bodies in their wake. He skims over the battle scene and fires a few repulsor blasts when he can make a safe shot. Cap’s slowly disappearing under a mob of the blue  _things,_ so Tony swoops down. Steve sees him and throws up his free arm. In a manoeuvre that would dislocate anyone else’s shoulder, Tony clasps the Cap’s forearm and lifts him off the ground. Of course, now is when the mastermind of this whole debacle, dressed in a full body skinsuit of an eye smarting shade of blue turns up. Letting out an enraged shriek of “ _My babies!”_ the villain fires some kind of projectile in Tony’s direction. Perfect. Just when he’s got limited manoeuvrability. Too high up to drop Cap. Damnit.

Taking note of the trajectory of the blue (and Tony’s sensing a theme here…) sphere, he dodges easily. Ha. Physics wins.

Except that the thing suddenly  _veers off-course._

It merely grazes him on the arm, instead of hitting his chest, but that seems to be enough.

The world whites out around him, but he doesn’t drop Steve.

oO*Oo

He comes to on his back in an alley somewhere.

He’s feeling bruised inside the suit and there’s a loud roaring in his ears.

He doesn’t know where Steve is.

Tony sits up, and when this fails to produce any thing more than slight dizziness, he stands and turns to see Cap standing at the mouth of the alley, pressed against the wall (and it is  _hilarious_ to see Cap trying to camouflage anywhere but a fourth of July party) and peering out.

Zooming in, he sees that the people are dressed kind of weirdly, in old fashioned suits and dresses. Actually, everything looks kind of – wait.

No. No way. Unfair. Totally unfair.

“It’s New York,” Steve says a little hoarsely, “ _My_ New York.”

Time-travel.  _Totally_ unfair.

oO*Oo

So, it’s not hard to figure out exactly when they are; a convenient newspaper puts them in late 1945.

The doozy is what to do now. Neither of them can exactly blend in with the crowd, even if Tony takes off the armour, but ignoring that, where would they go?

He scans the alley again and sees the blue sphere that got them into this mess. Okay, on the one hand this is good, because the best chance of getting back is to study what got them here. On the other hand, touching it could send them back another seventy years.  Tony crouches down and pokes it experimentally  with the rolled up newspaper .  N o reaction.  Well, here goes . He scoops the sphere up in one hand – stays where, er, when he is – and stands up.

Turning back to Steve, he sees that the soldier is no longer pressed against the wall. In fact, he’s standing in the mouth of the alley staring around in amazement. Damnit. He can’t be seen here.

He grabs Steve by the wrist and yanks him back into the cover of the alley’s mouth. It’s probably a mark of how spaced out he is that he  _lets_ Tony manhandle him.

“We’ve gotta find my dad,” Tony tells Steve, “He’s the only one who’ll have anything _like_ the resources to help us figure this out.”

“Okay,” Steve says, nodding, “Okay.” But he still looks dazed, so Tony makes the executive decision to take the lead on this one.

“Hold this,” he tells Steve, handing him the sphere.

The suit comes off, and thank God he’d chosen to keep the suitcase feature in the design of this model. A quick break-in scores a pair of men’s pants, a thick-weave shirt, a jacket and a pair of shoes (hey, it’s all good; he’s goddamned Iron Man, and he’ll pay them back, okay?). The clothes are too big for Tony, and tight on Steve, but they hide the Captain America get-up and the arc reactor. More worryingly, Steve doesn’t mention the breaking and entering, just wordlessly pulls on the pants and the jacket.

Happily, it only takes about twenty minutes to walk to Stark Mansion via the darkest, most unpopulated alleys he can find.

Steve is silent the whole time.

oO*Oo

In a feat that would never work in 2012 due to JARVIS’ watchful cameras, they climb in through a window (and Steve  _still_ makes no objection; Tony’s really starting to worry, here) and Tony leads Cap down to his father’s lab.

When they enter the lab, Howard Stark has his back to the door as he tinkers with something on the table. Hearing them come in, he spins and his eyes find Steve first.

“Steve? My God…my God, you’re alive!” Laughing, Howard moves forward to embrace the supersoldier, completely ignoring Tony’s presence.

_Story of my life_ , Tony thinks, only a little bitterly, and uses the opportunity to examine this younger version of his father. He looks terrible: tired, stressed and jittery like Tony gets when his intake is mostly caffeine.

Finally realizing that there’s another person in the room, the elder (younger?) Stark turns to Tony and…flinches away. He recovers quickly, his face morphing into bland politeness, but it was definitely a flinch.

“Hello,” he says smoothly, holding out a hand, “are we related? You look startlingly like my father.”

But Tony had seen the flash of fear in his father’s eyes, the tense shoulders. Well. For all that can be said about Howard’s parenting, Tony had never been  _afraid_ of him. Bitterness? Check. Disappointment? Check. Anger? Check to power of about eight billion. But never fear.

He shakes the offered hand. “Tony,” he tells his father, ignoring the question.

Howard turns back to Steve. “Tell me what happened. I should have heard you’d been found. Especially alive.”

“After the crash, I woke up in the future –” Steve starts, and Tony sees what he’s trying to do, the sneaky bastard. Wouldn’t have thought Steve had it in him, really.

“Uh, _no_. Sorry Cap, but you don’t get to do that. You don’t find him,” he tells his father bluntly, “He sleeps in the ice for seventy years before a Stark Industries venture digs him out.”

“Tony!” growls Steve miserably, but both Starks ignore him.

Tony is unsurprised that Howard goes straight to the heart of the matter. For all their differences, they’re both engineers first.

“Time-travel?” he breathes, incredulous. “How?”

Tony grimaces, “Not sure, yet. Something to do with this.” He pulls the sphere out of the jacket pocket, and Howard’s eyes light up.

They run tests; they run  _barrels_ of tests. Tony forgets, sometimes, in his animosity, how brilliant Howard Stark always was. It’s almost like working with himself (and no, he has not actually had that pleasure, though if Reed Richards keeps it up, it’s only a matter of time).

He forgets all about the supersoldier sitting in the corner until hours later, when he looks over and sees Cap curled up on the floor, apparently fast asleep.

“Seventy years…” Howard muses, eyeing Tony speculatively. Tony knows what he’s thinking: Howard’s only other close relative was his brother Greg who died, childless, in WWI, and the family resemblance is, admittedly, striking.

“Yeah,” says Tony, and busies himself with the readout from the (fucking _ancient_ ) equipment.

oO*Oo

It’s Howard, and not Steve, who brings up the metaphorical elephant in the room.

“He can’t stay, can he?”

Tony stares at his father. The bastard actually looks sad.

“No. No he can’t. The world, _my_ world, needs him. Needed him. Will need him. Whatever.”

Tilting his head back, Howard sighs.

“Damn. Still, we’d better call in to the SSR. See if Peggy can hitch a ride over.”

“Uh, who? And are you forgetting the potential for world-ending paradox, here?”

Howard stares at him, eyes wide and dark.

“I think the least we can do for Captain America is make sure he gets a proper good-bye from the closest thing he’s got left to a family.”

And,  _fuck_ , okay, fine. Let’s invite the destruction of the universe so Steve can get a good-bye kiss.

oO*Oo

So the call goes out and Peggy Carter is given indefinite leave for reasons so classified that only Colonel Philips is privy to them.

The Starks tinker, and Steve puts on a hat to hide his face and goes for long, solitary walks through a New York that actually feels like home.

oO*Oo

Peggy Carter turns out to be a knock-out brunette with more balls than half the men Tony knows. Honestly, Tony would’ve expected Steve’s girl to be a sweet, wholesome, old-fashioned gal who went to church every Sunday and knit socks for the soldiers and baked pies and whatever. Peggy is…nothing like that. She gives off the same vibes as Pepper and Natasha, of the _If you push me, I will completely fuck up your entire life, and look fantastic doing it_ variety. Tony likes her immediately.

But when Steve sees her, and they both fucking  _light up_ , he actually feels kind of sick because, god, if he had to say good-bye to Pepper for good? If he knew he had to live a lifetime without her? Granted, Steve seems to be able to function as a human being without Peggy’s direction, so it’s maybe not quite the same, but still. Jesus. 

Tony had always been kind of scornful of Steve’s moping, because, hello? The future is awesome. Why the hell would anyone miss the forties? But he’s beginning to see why Steve might be happier here. Now. Whatever. It's the people, more than anything. Though he knows Steve likes all of them on the team, the other man obviously _loves_ Peggy, desperately wants to see his Howling Commandos, and has a surprisingly healthy friendship with Howard.

He knows they’re close to cracking the device, not that he’ll ever be able to  _replicate_ the damn thing, because it seems to be some kind of techno-magical hybrid, but he’s about 95% sure that they’ll be able to squeeze out one trip forwards . Back to 3D interfaces and tablets – Jesus,  any kind of real computer  – and JARVIS, and Pepper, and Rhodey, and the team. Goddamn he misses home.

Picking up the soldering iron, Tony leans over the semi-disassembled device and gets back to work.

oO*Oo

They can do it.

It’ll take a hefty jolt from the arc reactor (and Tony’s not sure how he’s going to sneak that one past Howard), but he can get them home (well, with 95% certainty).

Howard is riding the high of discovery and invention (so is Tony, to be honest), but Steve and Peggy are stoic, their faces stiff, their hands linked in a white-knuckled grip. Damn it. He doesn’t want to feel bad about this.

“We should probably take a few days more for testing,” he lies. Howard shoots Tony a startled glance, before catching on and nodding his agreement.

oO*Oo

The days pass and Tony can't delay any longer, doesn't want to really. This is even less his time than the twenty-first century is Steve's.

The set up is relatively simple: a containing field with the sphere at the centre. Tony bullshitted up harnesses that attach to the device – totally useless to Steve, but it will allow Tony to surreptitiously draw power from the arc reactor.

Steve...Steve looks resigned, with that edge of intense melancholy that Tony had always associated with the supersoldier's homesickness.

They suit up, and stand within the ring of heavy cable as Howard brings up the containing field, Tony clutching the suitcase that still hides his armour. The air crackles and the transfer is set to go in three...two...– Steve tears his harness away from the sphere and leaps through the energy barrier an instant before the world fades away.

“NO!”


	2. branch

“Dad!” Tony says loudly, “Dad! Come look!”

“Hang on, Tony,” Dad says, not looking up from his circuit.

“Dad! Dad!”

“ _One minute, Tony!_ ” 

Tony pouts and subsides. Dad never means  _one_ minute when he says that.

And indeed, nearly ten minutes pass before Dad lifts his head and blinks around the lab.

“Tony?”

“You said _one_ minute,” the boy accuses, “it’s been nine and forty-two seconds.”

“Oh,” Dad says and looks at the giant clock Mom made him set up. “Shit – don’t tell your mother I said that – it’s five already! C’mon kid, your godfather’s been waiting.”

“Uncle Steve’s here?” Tony asks, delighted. “Can I show him my robot?”

“Sure, kiddo.”

Dad waits for Tony to pick up the lattice of wires and metal fixtures before scooping him up and carrying him out of the lab.

Tony lets him even though he’s five and not a baby, because he knows that Dad sometimes has trouble with his feelings, and he should let Dad be nice when he remembers. Uncle Steve said that sometimes Dad might get really busy in his head and ignore Tony, but it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love him.

It’s a good thing Uncle Steve explained it to him.

oO*Oo

At age seven and five eighths, Tony is pretty sure that Uncle Steve is secretly Captain America.

There are a few flaws in this theory, like the fact that, as far as anyone knows, the Captain is dead somewhere in the Arctic, but Tony’s still about eighty percent convinced.

If Uncle Steve _is_ Captain America, then he's obviously on some super-secret mission and Tony has to keep quiet and not blow his cover.

Around age eight and two sevenths, Tony figures that Captain America, if he were alive and only faking his death, would probably be off in the USSR punching all the communists or something, and probably not hanging around in New York funnelling all the money he can scrounge up into children's shelters.

Uncle Steve is pretty cool anyways, even if he isn't Captain America.

oO*Oo

Tony spends his early teenage years alternating between explosive rage and near-crippling insecurity.

Mom doesn’t seem to know what to do with him, and usually settles for giving him an awkward pat on the shoulder and kiss on the cheek before whirling off to support today’s charity.

When Tony yells at Dad, the man always yells back, which usually leads to intense screaming matches that leave both of them exhausted and furious. And he knows better than to go to Dad in the aftermath when he’s feeling empty and lost, because Dad is about as emotionally aware as your average cactus as nearly as prickly. At least the man doesn’t hold any grudges.

Steve sits through Tony’s tantrums with a deliberate calm that is utterly  _infuriating_ when Tony’s trying to pick a fight. He’ll sit sketching, or filling out paperwork, looking almost amused while Tony rages. And then, no matter what Tony says or does, Uncle Steve is always there when the anger passes and he comes slinking back, full of repentance. Maybe fourteen is too old to cuddle with his godfather, but sometimes it’s the only thing that grounds him.

oO*Oo

At sixteen, Tony's mood swings have subsided into simple impulsiveness. He applies to MIT and is accepted four hours later.

He ships out to Boston in September, accompanied only by his godfather. Steve turns out to be an excellent porter, but also too altruistic for his own good because he ends up carrying furniture for about half the students moving in. Tony’s nearly certain that only the obvious gold band on Steve’s left hand saves him from the attentions of the young women.

Which, really, is kinda gross to think about, even if Steve is in  _super_ good shape for an old guy.

oO*Oo

MIT is kind of miserable. The classes are okay: too slow, mostly, but the teachers are willing to give him a good deal of free rein as long as he does the work.

The problem is that he’s too young, too brilliant, too snarky and too rich. The other students approach him, but they always want something in return. Homework help, money, connections. Tony can charm the pants off anyone (literally, he’s finding out), but the moment he eases off on the persona, they drop him. He’s …lonely, and it’s not like he’s ever had many friends his own age, but now he doesn’t even have his family.

He’s drunk and lost and so fucking sick of all these fakers.

Uncle Steve picks up on the second ring.

“Uncle Steve?”

“Tony? How’s it going?”

“I can’t, Steve. _I don’t know where I am._ I need, fuck, I’m – Steve.”

“Tony, tell me everything.”

And so the story comes out, confused and broken up, about how there’d been a party, and alcohol, and then a car and now he’s lost, and he hates it here.

“Okay, Tony. It’s okay.” He actually sounds relieved and Tony realizes belatedly that Steve probably thought he’d been kidnapped and drugged, or something.

With Steve’s prompting, he manages to find a street sign, and his godfather calls him a cab.

He falls asleep with his shoes still on.

When Tony wakes up, head pounding, Uncle Steve is puttering around the dinky little dorm-room kitchenette while Aunt Peggy is folding a load of fresh laundry. He blinks because it’s a little surreal and his head really hurts.

“Enjoying that hangover?” Aunt Peggy asks archly when she sees he’s awake.

Tony collapses back onto the bed.

“Fuck,” he says, “when did you get here?”

“Oh, early. My husband seemed to think you needed us.”

That visit gets him to pull his head out of his ass and realize that there are actually a bunch of really decent people around campus. They’re the ones who mostly ignore him because he’s been ignoring them.

For example, James Rhodes—who’d initially tried to befriend the young whiz-kid and been rebuffed—turns out to be a pretty great guy, despite being a bit of a square. And there’s Yasmin from the robotics lab, and Jordan the bartender, and Yang who’s doing her Doctorate in Quantum Mechanics. Maybe not lifelong friends, but not two-faced liars, either.

Tony can only wonder what the hell his life would be if Steve wasn’t there to come running every time Tony had a crisis.

oO*Oo

His parents die on a Sunday, in a car crash, in the rain.

The funeral is fancy and polished and fake. Steve and Aunt Peggy pull it together, but he can tell that it gives them about as much closure as it gives him, i.e. none. Obie is there, which is cool; Tony doesn’t get to see him much anymore, now that he’s living in Boston and Obie’s so busy with the company.

Steve takes him home afterwards, but doesn’t leave Tony to Jarvis right away; instead he puts on his determined face, which kinda makes Tony think that Steve’s gonna want to talk about his  _feelings_ and shit. 

Instead, Steve sighs and begins, “I know that this is possibly the last thing you wanna think about, but you’re still a minor, and you gotta have a guardian. Howard didn’t plan for—He didn’t…Probably thought he’d live forever, the mad bastard, and…” Steve brings a hand to his face. “Sorry. Basically, your Dad left everything to you and your Mom, and your Mom left everything to you and your Dad, and, well.” He clears his throat. “You have two options, the way I see it: early emancipation, or we can figure out a guardian for you. You know you’re always welcome with me ‘n Peggy, and Mr. Stane said he’d be happy to take you on as well. Your mother’s family are possibilities, too, so... Just, think about it, okay?”

Tony nods dumbly. He doesn’t want to think about it, and he doesn’t have to. Tony knows fuck-all about how to run his own life, so that leaves out early emancipation. Obie’s cool, but kinda distant these days, and likely to be even busier with Stark Industries, now that…well, now. He’s met his maternal relatives a handful of times and doesn’t have terribly fond memories. Really, there’s only one person who’s been there all his life, ready to drop everything the moment Tony calls.

“I’d like you to do it,” he mumbles.

“Tony, are you sure?”

“Yes, _yes_ , Jesus, Steve. You’re more of a dad that my actual dad ever was, okay?”

“Tony…”

“I know he loved me, okay? I do. But he had a shitty way of showing it, and I always knew he loved his work more.”

Steve’s frowning at him, but chooses not to press the point. “I’ll get legal to draft the paperwork.” He kisses Tony’s forehead, like he used to do when Tony was really little. “Goodnight, Tony. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

oO*Oo

Tony wasn’t really close to either of his parents, but losing them still hurts. Maybe it even makes it harder to move on, because he forgets that they’re gone. He’ll suddenly have the impulse to call up Dad to discuss a new kind of circuit board, or pitch a friend’s start-up charity to his mother. Sometimes he’ll actually be dialling the number before he remembers.

oO*Oo

A few short years later, Tony graduates with honours, and immediately steps into the role of Stark Industries CEO. There are awesome parts like having the run of a state-of-the-art research lab and getting to see Obie regularly, and not-awesome parts like board meetings.

He hires Pepper Potts as his PA more because she’s phenomenally competent than because of her admittedly fantastic legs.

As ever, he’s rude and absent-minded, ducks as many meetings as possible and never arrives on time. Pepper sighs, and snarks and then handles it all with superhuman grace and skill. It’s honestly kind of terrifying.

Steve likes Pepper. Which is good, because Tony really, really likes Pepper, and may even love her.

He thinks Pepper likes Steve, too, which is also good. Steve is probably the only thing that saved Tony from childhood attention-starvation, adolescent angst and college alcohol poisoning.

Two years later, Pepper hands him her resignation so she can kiss him without violating the SI fraternization regulations.

He promotes her anyways.

oO*Oo

By this point, Tony knows there's something a little weird about Steve. His memories tell him that Steve is from his parents' generation – he's got to be up there in years. But there's something about the way Tony's 'uncle' moves and holds himself – despite the head of grey hair and the wrinkles on his face – that makes the young genius think of a much ( _much_ ) younger man.

oO*Oo

Peggy Rogers née Carter, now definitely elderly, is hospitalized for general health problems when Tony is twenty-two.

Tony doesn’t want to believe it’s the end, but it’s hard to avoid the knowledge when she kicks Steve out of his vigil at her bedside to have long, private talks with her loved ones.

She speaks with Tony last (except, of course for Steve, who wouldn’t leave her side for any reason but her express wish). Lying there, frail and withered, hooked up to a tangle of machines (and what good were they? Tony thinks, eyeing the Stark Industries logo angrily), she is still every inch the strong, confident woman Tony has always known.

She gives him a disk, with strict instructions to pass it on to Steve when she’s gone.

“It’s just a little project I was working on. Whispers and ghost stories, you know. I wanted to wait until I was certain, but it appears I don’t have that option. And, he’ll need something, when I’m gone.”

Tony doesn't know what that means, but promises nonetheless.

“You're a wonderful boy, Tony, and you deserve so very much in life. I”m sorry I won't be here to see you reach it.”

The rest of their conversation is probably one of the most personally intimate experiences he's ever had, and he walks away feeling utterly drained.

Peggy passes away only days later, her husband at her side.

Dutifully, Tony passes the disk to Steve at the funeral. Steve drops off the face of the Earth the next day.

Tony doesn’t want to be angry at him, but can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a dick move. It’s not like he was the only one to love Aunt Peggy, after all.

oO*Oo

Steve comes back after months of  _nothing_ , looking like Hell, but also kind of like Christmas came early. He’s trailed by a shell-shocked young man who has a metal arm (!), and a girl with brilliant titian hair who doesn't seem to speak.

It's very weird, but after a single night of the three of them crashing at the Stark Mansion, the two strangers disappear, and life goes back to normal.

oO*Oo

In the weeks leading up to Tony's trip to Afghanistan, Steve gets more and more tense, until Tony starts to, like, _genuinely worry_ about things like heart attacks because Steve has got to be, what, at least eighty?

“Be _careful_ , Tony,” he insists before Tony boards the jet.

And maybe his worry is unnecessary, but when Tony goes out for the field demos, he pulls on a set of still-in-development ultra-light, ultra-flexible body armour under his casual clothes.

Whaddya know, it works great against shrapnel, but does fuck-all to stop his head from smashing into some rocks hard enough to knock him out.

oO*Oo

He's been in the cave for (he thinks) about a month, and Tony's totally ready blow this joint (in both the figurative _and_ literal senses).

Obviously, because his life isn't crazy enough, in the middle of his utterly daring and ingenious escape, three weirdo ninja-types show up and raise some hell. Happily, they seem to have an extreme prejudice against the terrorists, and provide an excellent distraction while largely staying out of Tony's way. In short order, he and Yinsen are clear and the camp is a fiery inferno left behind them.

He's only just beginning to wonder _what the fuck_ _comes next?_ when he hears the blessed sound of a helicopter, and then Rhodey's there, thank you God.

What portion of the trip home he spends awake, Tony spends thinking of that suit while fiddling with the miniature arc reactor he'd tucked into his pocket.

He dreams of flying.

oO*Oo

Probably, there are better ways of dealing with getting kidnapped and held prisoner than building a flying suit of armor and field testing it on himself, but, well, would they be anywhere near as cool?

Of course, then it turns out Stark Industries has somehow been funnelling weapons to terrorists, and – even worse – he gets proof that Obie is behind it. That Obie had arranged the whole kidnapping.

 

When Tony has to kill Obadiah Stane in order to keep Pepper, himself, and maybe even the world safe, he knows that Iron Man is not just a science project anymore.

oO*Oo

Iron Man is, in fact, a bona fide super hero. While most of his heroism involves feats of search-and-rescue and engineering, there are occasionally crazies who think that because they can crank out a copycat armor, they can rampage around the city as they please. Iron Man disagrees, usually with extreme violence.

Tony Stark remains an obscenely wealthy genius.

oO*Oo

They find Captain America frozen in the Arctic, which kind of blows Tony's mind, because, well, he'd never quite gotten over the idea that, somehow, his Uncle Steve was Captain America. When it becomes clear that Captain America is still alive, well, Tony spends a good five minutes wrapping his head around that one.

He doesn't really bother with the matter after the initial excitement, because miraculous bio-medical serums really aren't his area, and he doubts there's really room for any kind of personal relationship there.

oO*Oo

The Earth is under attack and Fury's going full-steam ahead on his little Avengers dream team. Tony doesn't really give a damn about SHIELD's pet projects, but he is rather fond of the planet, so he plays along (mostly) for now.

And then Captain America shows up, as a civilian, and wearing a face straight out of Tony's childhood.

He thinks he can be forgiven for some assholery.

What shocks him more than anything else, though, is that Captain America ( _Steve?!?!?_ ) is kind of an asshole right back.

oO*Oo

Tony tries to call Steve – Uncle Steve – even though he's not quite sure what to say: _Hey Steve, so, funny story: Captain America is alive, and stole your face! What's up with that?_ Right.

Doesn't matter, it turns out, because Steve doesn't pick up, the bastard.

oO*Oo

With the Chitauri defeated, the Avengers scatter, for a time. Until the next crisis hits, anyways. And while the missions keep coming, the scattering happens less and less, until the six of them find themselves living together in ~~Stark~~ the Avengers' Tower.

It's not perfect: Tony sulks because Uncle Steve has once again dropped off the face of the Earth, Steve – Captain Steve – broods because he hates the future, Bruce angsts because, well, _giant green rage monster,_ Natasha and Clint are crazy ninja-spies with traumatic pasts, so, you know, enough said, and Thor, when he pops in, seems to channel his massive brother-issues through destructive urges.

But it works more that it doesn't.

(He can tell by the way the Tower is still standing, and none of them are dead.)

oO*Oo

And then he finds himself in the past with Captain Steve.


	3. merge

Tony opens his eyes and recognizes the interior of the Avengers' Tower.

“Fuck,” he mutters viciously, “Goddamn, idiot soldier!”

When the containing field drops, Tony falls to his knees. His head...what the hell? He remembers...he remembers two lives, because his dad never played with him, except now Tony can picture it.  _Remebers_ it. And, the arc reactor: it's gone. No it's right there, in the suit, where it belongs; why would it be in his chest? More memories, wrong memories, good, bad. Rhodey, Pepper, Obie. Steve.

What?

Steve. Uncle Steve, his godfather, who's come through for him time and time again. Or Steve Rogers, Captain America. Both? Oh.

The other life is fading, because it never really was. And Tony knows.

They have a problem.

Clint, Bruce and Natasha rush into the room, clearly relieved to see him, but –

“Steve,” Clint says, “Where's Steve?”

Tony opens his mouth to say _something._ How the hell can he even explain this?

“I'm here.”

And Steve is standing in the doorway. Uncle Steve, who is ninety years old, but still stands straight and tall, broad-shouldered and strong.

“What the fuck.” Clint says.

And then Steve pulls off his face.

Okay, Tony figures out in under a second that it's actually a plastic mask, but still: super creepy.

Suddenly, except for the grey hair (and are those blond roots coming in?), Uncle Steve looks pretty much exactly like twenty-something Captain America.

“Again, _what the fuck!_ ”

“Tony and I were sent back in time, to _my_ time. He sent himself back, and I took the long way around.” Steve offers a wry smile.

“But you – ! You were old!” Tony accuses.

Steve shakes his head. “I knew I wasn't ageing normally – something like ten times slower, if that – thanks to Dr. Banner, so I figured I'd use up some of that time. Howard, Peggy and I set up the ruse.” Steve looks him dead in the eyes, “Tony, I'm sorry. It was selfish to stay, I know that, but I just...I loved Peggy. And I tried to do good things, to help people, to help all of you.”

“You were...helping us?” Bruce sounds bewildered.

“I tried. There was a lot I never knew. I had no idea where you were, Clint, or how to find you, until you joined SHIELD. Bruce, I'm so sorry, but I couldn't stop you from making the Hulk; we needed him so badly in the Chitauri attack. But I tried to help afterwards, keep the army off your trail, discredit that bastard Ross. Natasha, I found by accident. Thor was in Asgard. But, Tony, I think I changed your life most of all.”

Yeah. Understatement. But, well, from what Tony can remember of the other life, this one is better by far.

“Yeah, well, thanks, I think,” he croaks. Bruce and Clint still look shell-shocked.

Natasha, in stark contrast, smiles widely and goes to him lifting her arms. Steve catches her in a bear hug and kisses her forehead.

“Wait,” says Tony, “I remember right after Aunt Peggy's funeral, you left and came back with this crazy cyborg guy and a redheaded girl. That was _you?_ ”

“Yes,” says Natasha, “Steve helped me and Yasha get out of the Red Room.”

“Yasha?”

“Bucky,” says Steve.

“Okay, we need to sit down and have a _long_ talk about all this shit.”

Steve smiles.

“We've got time.”


	4. cracky crossover epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS BASICALLY CRACK.
> 
> (and won't make much sense if you don't know Doctor Who)
> 
> feel free to skip.

 Hours later, when Thor has returned from fact-finding in Asgard, and after hammering the whole story into as linear a path as they could manage, the Avengers sit around the common room and eat Chinese takeout.

As Tony drifts into a light doze, a loud grinding noise fills the air, startling him back into wakefulness. Sitting up, he watches a large blue box materialize in front of the team's astonished eyes.

When the door of the “Police Box” opens, and a man emerges like a leather-clad stormcloud, he comes face-to-face with the sight of battle-ready Avengers.

Unfazed, the man scowls. “What the _bloody hell_ have you apes done to the timeline?”


End file.
